Civil and Human Rights

Increased Transparency for Knesset Hearings

Following a request from NIF grantee Social Guard, seven Knesset committee chairs have agreed to begin publishing official protocols specifying how individual MKs voted on each bill in committee. Until now, and unlike the procedures for full Knesset votes, legislative committee chairs have not been required to record the votes of participating MKs.

In many cases, MKs’ votes in committee have not reflected their public statements or stances on controversial issues.

Boaz Rakocz, the Social Guard’s Director General, said: “This trailblazing initiative is a big win for the cause of transparency and accountability in the Knesset, and a huge win for the Social Guard…We hope that in the long term we can begin tracking this data once it becomes standard practice for all committees. In turn, this will allow us to collate more data, and publish rankings based on voting within the committees.”

The Social Guard’s mission is to monitor the work of Israeli MKs and inform the public about discussions related to social justice and civic equality.